Washington The Iraqi government has agreed to let U.S. Rep. Tony Hall visit the country next week to assess a humanitarian crisis that has festered since the Gulf War of 1990, Hall's office said Monday. The Dayton Democrat, who has traveled to other crisis points including Sierra Leone and North Korea, will spend three days visiting hospitals and other facilities to seek understanding why aid has been ineffective in stemming malnourishment and other medical problems. Iraq has been under economic sanctions since the war ended, which some say have thwarted the country's ability to recover from the devastation of the bombing campaign. The Persian Gulf War destroyed much of the country's medical infrastructure, according to a report by the World Health Organization. In 1996 the WHO found that much of the population existed in a state of ``semi-starvation.'' Hall will be only the second member of Congress to travel in Iraq since the war, according to Hall's office. The last visitor was then-U.S. Rep. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who went to help a pair of U.S. oilmen in diplomatic trouble. Hall flies to Amman, Jordan, on Friday, where he'll spend the night before driving to Iraq. Flights are not permitted into Iraq. Hall is to return to Washington on April 22. Story Filed By Cox Newspapers 

How many U.S members of Congress visited Iraq before Hall?


 We were cornered in a sort of way already.  But these butchers up the cavern had been surprised, they were probably scared, and they had no special weapons, only those little hatchets of theirs.  And that way lay escape.  Their sturdy little forms--ever so much shorter and thicker than the mooncalf herds--were scattered up the slope in a way that was eloquent of indecision.  I had the moral advantage of a mad bull in a street.  But for all that, there seemed a tremendous crowd of them.  Very probably there was.  Those Selenites down the cleft had certainly some infernally long spears.  It might be they had other surprises for us.... But, confound it!  if we charged up the cave we should let them up behind us, and if we didn't those little brutes up the cave would probably get reinforced.  Heaven alone knew what tremendous engines of warfare--guns, bombs, terrestrial torpedoes--this unknown world below our feet, this vaster world of which we had only pricked the outer cuticle, might not presently send up to our destruction.  It became clear the only thing to do was to charge!  It became clearer as the legs of a number of fresh Selenites appeared running down the cavern towards us. 

Who did there seem to be a tremendous crowd of?


Earthquakes seemed to outline a special feature of earth's crust. Earthquakes let scientists know where the crust was moving. This led to the discovery that the Earths crust was broken up into regions, or plates. Earthquakes happen most often along these plate boundaries. This was evidence that continents can move. The movements of the plates are called plate tectonics. The Earths crust is divided into plates. There are about a dozen large plates and several small ones. Each plate is named for the continent or ocean basin it contains. Scientists know he plates are in motion. They now know the direction and speed of this motion . Plates dont move very fast. They move only a few centimeters a year. This is about the same rate fingernails grow. So you might wonder, what could cause this motion? What supplies the energy to cause this change? 


What led scientists to discover plates?